Vodafone unveils M-Pesa service in AP

Hyderabad: Vodafone India on Wednesday launched M-Pesa, its money transfer and payment facility, in Andhra Pradesh. With this, the telecom operator has completed roll-out of the service across the country Using the M-Pesa accounts, Vodafone customers can deposit and withdraw cash from designated outlets, transfer money to any mobile phone or remit money to any bank account in India, make payments to recharge mobile, clear utility bills and for DTH service subscription, shop at select shops and participate in e-commerce.

"With the launch in AP, M-Pesa is now present across 60,000 agent outlets across India. In Andhra Pradesh, it will be available across 23 districts through 3,826 authorised agents, including over 700 Vodafone exclusive outlets," Mandeep Singh Bhatia, business head (Andhra Pradesh), Vodafone, told media here after launching the service which was initiated in collaboration with ICICI Bank. Pointing out that Vodafone had covered 75 per cent of the Andhra Pradesh population in over 11,000 towns and villages where it has over 1,000 exclusive outlets, Bhatia said educational hubs like Hyderabad, Warangal, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur would be potential growth areas for the service, in addition to industrial and defence bases Suresh Sethi, Business Head, M-Pesa, Vodafone India, said over 1.2 million people had subscribed for this service since the launch. “We are currently handling the National Rural Health Mission (NHM) disbursements in Odisha and Jharkhand on a pilot basis. We will approach other state governments for similar arrangements once these pilots are successfully rolled out," he said.